16.10.18 Storm in Halifax & return flight

We have a leisurely breakfast at Tim Hortons (where else) and set off on the about 80km drive to Halifax. First a stop at Waverley Inn to drop off our luggage and then we walk around Halifax for a while. The sun is shining but there is a cold wind blowing. The harbor is half under construction and the clock tower is completely covered in scaffolding. Damn.

I am back at the hotel around 1:30 pm, reorganize my luggage again and drive to the airport. The GPS wants to take me over a toll bridge and I decide to drive another 3-4 km to a second bridge, hoping it won't cost anything. Little do I know that the toll is only $1. As I approach the second bridge, I have to stop because I have my money in the trunk. A very Bavarian-speaking "Canadian" comes up to me. He works here at the toll station and when it becomes clear that we both have a different native language than English, it's nice to have a little chat with him. He is visibly delighted to be able to use his broadest Upper Bavarian dialect again.

The Halifax airport is about 35km from downtown and with this small interruption at the bridge, I arrive at the car rental after about 45 minutes.

We have driven about 3,761km in the 17 days. They were cozy kilometers.

Check-in is done at machines next to which there are scales. I weigh my thick bag and see that it weighs 22.95kg including the planned contents. I dig out a long-sleeved t-shirt from my already heavy backpack and stuff it into the bag. Since I want to make sure that my luggage is checked through to Berlin, I turn to a counter and a nice lady finds my booking, labels the bag to Berlin, but then I have to take it to the conveyor belt myself.

Unfortunately, there is a scale built into the conveyor belt and now it shows that the bag weighs 23.4kg due to the t-shirt. The nice lady rushes to help, unlocks the jammed conveyor belt, and my bag goes on its way.

My flight is at 5:15 pm and due to the strong wind, almost all flights are delayed. Mine is not. Until it's time to board. We take off with a slight delay, but the nice Westjet stewardess doesn't know where we're landing. But I've already found the gate for the flight to Paris online: A55. I just don't know how far it is. Do I have to go through an exit control?

There is an older couple in front of me who also have to take the Paris flight and have ordered a wheelchair service. The lady offers that I can just ride along if a car is used. That's exactly what I do and so I arrive on time and comfortably at the gate to Paris. I can't say why the boarding here is extremely chaotic. But when there are still easily 50, 60 people standing in the aisles of the economy class and others calmly storing and retrieving their huge pieces of luggage in the compartments, then decide to stand up again and block everything in the aisle to get their jackets out again, this huge bird actually starts moving away from the gate and while the flight attendants are still gesturing wildly in French, urging the sluggish mass of guests to finally sit down, the safety information begins on the onboard TV. I've never experienced anything like this before.

The flight is short, only 5 hours and 52 minutes, but the delay cannot be made up.

The transfer from 2E to 2F in Paris sounds short but is not achievable if you don't run and push. I run to the security, they want to scan the camera again after the screening, and I rush from there to passport control. The line winds around 20m from left to right and left and right - I estimate that about 200 people are waiting for passport control. On the outbound flight, there were readers for EU passports, here there are only French officials. I run to the front, explain my problem, and am about the 10th in line. When it's my turn, one of the two control posts also closes and goes on a break. The mob behind me is getting impatient. I squeeze myself onto the open counter, slam my passport down, and am on my way behind the control, running up two floors and then along a hallway. There are no toilets at the gates - damn. I run back and just in time, during boarding, I am back at the gate, fall into my seat, and arrive in Berlin on time.

The bag got stuck in Paris, so I am not obliged to wait endlessly at the baggage carousel because of a text message from Air France. I am already filling out the search report while leaving the airport, I am sitting at my desk at 12:00 noon, and the bag is delivered at 6:30 pm.

I will not fly over Paris again.

But the trip was nice. It was probably the last two possible weeks in the region. When I arrive on October 17th, it is snowing in Halifax for the first time.